The $60 million settlement was a huge mistake of Apple. Apple could negotiate with terrorists but shouldn't have negotiated about terrorism ever. Apple emboldened more terrorists to try the same thing.

Couldn't have put it better. Dance with the devil... And he'll break your legs.

The straightforward way would be to send Apple a cease-and-desist which I'm sure Apple would respond to and remove the offending app and ban the developer as well. But why ask nicely when you can squeeze for some money right?

There is no such thing as "straightforward" when doing business in Asia. I'm almost in tears now because a recent project I just did, back here in Australia, went so smoothly I almost can't believe it.

There are con artists everywhere of course, but in Malaysia in the past several years I was literally continuously wading through them.

I apologize if this statement hurts your feelings, but sir, you're stupid, or ignorant.

China is a country with laws, like America. Like America, it might sometimes disregard them (hey, remember attacking Irak guys, which qualifies as an unilateral aggression in terms of international law? OK, now that the "terrorist" part is eliminated... let's move along).

Apple has a Store. It sells stuff, and that stuff happened to be stolen. Apple is liable for that like anyone else would be. Being Apple doesn't mean "hey, we can ignore the law".
If you sell stolen goods, you're liable. If you keep selling them once you're aware they're stolen, you are even a criminal, but the mere act of selling stolen goods makes you liable.
Apple, however, can and should sue the hell out of the persons who broke the law in the first place, but your comment was outrageous.

Wrong. China and most Asian countries are countries with a facade of laws, not laws. You say that something should happen to Apple because it sold stolen goods. However, in China and Asia, the law is whatever the government/ cronies/ corrupt/ "judiciary"/ syariah courts feel like doing at the time.

I say to all, beware the dragon rising, for it is something familiar yet totally different that will dominate our century, and leaving the West to beg to maintain the West's way of life.

Wrong. China and most Asian countries are countries with a facade of laws, not laws. You say that something should happen to Apple because it sold stolen goods. However, in China and Asia, the law is whatever the government/ cronies/ corrupt/ "judiciary"/ syariah courts feel like doing at the time.
I say to all, beware the dragon rising, for it is something familiar yet totally different that will dominate our century, and leaving the West to beg to maintain the West's way of life.

The "West" is the last bastion of freedom, democracy, rule of law and fairness. For at least the next 30 years. There will be improvements in the developing world but it won't come close to the peak of Western civilisation of the early 21st Century.

Or they could get their products taken out of China; the land of soon to be 2 billion people.

Apple wasn't going to ever win that one... It was a setup between the mainland China parent and Taiwan child company.... China "just doesn't recognize" legal contracts made in Taiwan whenever it suits them... There's no way Apple was going to win without that recognition.

idea for a scam:
- write a book, get it copywritten and published, selling for $100+ a copy
- get someone to publish it on the App Store for free
- sue Apple for every copy downloaded
Perhaps they need to have a system that auto scans for copywritten text the way Google does for music on Youtube.

This is the huge downside of a walked garden. The fact that Apple reads through as much of a program as they want, then makes a decision, based on their own internal criteria... A combination of content, morals, technical, and future business decisions... Apple firmly lacks "common carrier" type status that other ISPs and Retailers fight so hard to keep.

As the judgement seems a reasonable amount of sales (82k vs 8200k like US courts allow) I see this setting a nasty precedent... But one coming soon in the USA as soon as the lawyers can actually get a case to court. This also explains why we get these "change your name or else" posts from time-to-time... As Apple gets cornered and settles to keep this from happening in US or EU courts.

The "West" is the last bastion of freedom, democracy, rule of law and fairness. For at least the next 30 years. There will be improvements in the developing world but it won't come close to the peak of Western civilisation of the early 21st Century.